Absorbent articles are articles, such as diapers (for infants and adults), sanitary napkins, incontinence articles, training pants or the like, that absorb and process bodily fluids excreted from a wearer by means of an absorber that makes use of a super absorbent polymer (hereinafter also referred to as an “SAP”), wood pulp in a fluffy form or the like.
In conventional absorbent articles, a bodily fluid is directly excreted onto the surface of an absorber from the excretory organ of the wearer, and is absorbed into the absorber and processed therein through diffusion over the surface of the absorber and through shifting from the surface of the absorber to the inside thereof.
Accordingly, to prevent bodily fluid from leaking from the absorbent article to the exterior thereof, it is necessary to closely attach the surface of the absorber to the wearer's skin, in particular, the excretory organ, so that no gap is formed between the absorbent article and the wearer's body.
However, when the absorbent article is used in such condition, the wearer's skin becomes closely attached to the surface of the absorber, which is made wet by the bodily fluid, after the bodily fluids are excreted. There existed a problem to the effect that, when the wearer's skin was in contact with the bodily fluid for a prolonged time, it was not only unpleasant for the wearer but also led to swelling of the skin and became a cause of bacterial growth that may lead to rashes and inflammation.
As a new proposal to overcome such problem in conventional absorbent articles, the inventor has proposed an approach in which a unit, which allows shifting and distribution of the bodily fluid to the front and/or rear of the absorber, is newly introduced between the surface of the absorber and the wearer's skin in order to prevent the direct shifting of the bodily fluid to the absorber, in particular, to a crotch part, which is at a position corresponding to the wearer's excretory organ, and thereby, effectively avoiding the contact between the excreted bodily fluid and the wearer's skin.
In Patent Document 1, such unit is proposed as a floating leg gather (FLG). In Patent Document 2, such unit is proposed as a shifting passage for bodily fluids. In Patent Document 3, such unit is proposed as a reception canal for bodily fluids. All of the units according to these proposals share a common point to the effect that they have a pair of right and left head parts and a hanging part that are coupled to the pair of right and left head parts, and that only the pair of right and left head parts make contact with the wearer's skin.